Margaret Salmon, Oyster and Selected Works

Margaret Salmon creates filmic portraits that weave together poetry and ethnography. Focusing on individuals in their everyday habitats, her films capture the minutiae of daily life and infuse them with a gentle grandeur, touching upon universal human themes. Adapting techniques drawn from Cinema Vérité and Italian Neo-Realism, Salmon’s orchestrations of sound and image introduce a formal lyricism into the tradition of realist film.

This screening programme offers a rare opportunity to revisit her early American typographies series: P.S. (1998/​2002), Peggy (2003) and Ramapo Central (2003). And to see the developments in two new works filmed around her home in Kent. Pyramid (2014), recently shown at the London Film Festival, focuses on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, filmed through the rhythms and choreography of middle class life. Oyster (2014) is a documentary poem that showcases the native oyster and explores its unique history and socio-economic legacy.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A and Salmon will discuss her new project Eglantine, her first long form film, currently being shot in locations across Scotland, including the Isle of Mull, Tay Forest, Glenmore, and the Woods of Cree.

Margaret Salmon was born in 1975 in Suffurn, New York. She lives and works between Kent and New York City. She won the first Max Mara Art Prize for Women in 2006. Her work was shown at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and the Berlin Biennale in 2010.

P.S., 1998/​2002. 16mm transferred to digital, 8 min 13 sec.

Peggy, 2003. 16mm transferred to digital, 13 min 30 sec.

Ramapo Central, 2003. 16mm transferred to digital, 8 min 14 sec.

Pyramid, 2014. 16mm transferred to digital, 17 min.

Oyster, 2014. 16mm transferred to digital, 14 min 25 sec.